News of the Day From Across the Nation

Published 5:58 pm, Monday, August 4, 2014

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News of the Day From Across the Nation

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1 "Culture of violence": In an extraordinary rebuke of the New York City Department of Correction, the federal government said Monday that the department had systematically violated the civil rights of male teenagers at Rikers Island by failing to protect them from the rampant use of unnecessary and excessive force by correction officers. The office of the U.S. attorney in Manhattan released its findings in a graphic 79-page report that described a "deep-seated culture of violence" against youthful inmates at Rikers, perpetrated by guards who operated with little fear of punishment. The report, addressed to Mayor Bill de Blasio and two other senior city officials, singled out for blame a "powerful code of silence" among jail staff, along with a virtually useless system for investigating attacks

2 USS Cole case: A military judge is refusing to step down in the case of the Guantanamo Bay detainee accused of orchestrating the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen. Air Force Col. Vance Spath denied a defense motion for recusal Monday at a pretrial hearing in Cuba for Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri. Defense attorneys had questioned Spath's impartiality since the judge successfully pushed for the death penalty as the lead prosecutor in another capital case in 2005. Reporters covered the hearing by watching a video feed at Fort Meade, near Baltimore.

3 Abortion ruling: Dealing the second blow to antiabortion activists in less than a week, a federal judge has ruled that an Alabama law that would have shut three of the state's five abortion clinics is unconstitutional. The law, a version of which has been passed in multiple states across the country in recent years, requires doctors performing abortions to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals. A similar Mississippi law was blocked last week by a federal appeals court in one of the most conservative districts in the country.

4 Presidential birthday: President Obama is keeping a low public profile as he celebrates his 53rd birthday. Obama had no public events scheduled Monday, though he got his daily briefing and meeting with Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew. Obama held a weekend celebration on the golf course and at Camp David, the presidential retreat in the Maryland mountains. Among those joining the president were three friends from his childhood in Hawaii.

5 Pez treasures: Pez dispensers buried on New York City beaches this weekend contained something even sweeter than candy: cold, hard cash. The backers of the popular Hidden Cash movement filled three-dozen of the devices with $100 bills and scattered them for a scavenger hunt Sunday in Brooklyn's Coney Island and Brighton Beach. One lucky boy found a Superman-shaped dispenser good for two round-trip airline tickets to anywhere in the U.S. The California-based movement gave away cash in Central and Prospect parks in June and has held similar events in cities. Backers Jason Buzzi and Yan Budman say it's a way to give back to the community.

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